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A report on the teaching workloads of professors in chemistry, philosophy and economics at 10 universities by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, an arms-length agency of the Ontario government, found the average professor teaches only three courses per year — typically two in one semester and one in the other — even though about 20 per cent appear to be involved in no research or scholarly writing.

If such “research non-active faculty members” were to teach twice as many courses as colleagues who are busy publishing and conducting research, the impact on teaching capacity would be “equivalent to adding about 1,500 faculty members across the province,” said the report by Linda Jonker and Martin Hicks.

The authors said the rationale for their report, which used data largely obtained from university websites, was to “inform the discussion about opportunities for greater differentiation and productivity in Ontario’s university system.”

It’s just the latest suggestion that teaching loads should be higher among Ontario professors. In a controversial 2012 book, Ontario professors Ian Clark and David Trick suggested that
doubling the number
of courses every professor teaches each semester to four from two would save Queen’s Park some $4,500 per student by reducing the need for more instructors.

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However the figures fail to show that Ontario professors actually teach more students than ever before, countered Kate Lawson, president of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations and an associate professor of English at the University of Waterloo.

“The student-faculty ratio in Ontario universities is 28-to-one — the highest in Canada, up from 22-to-one in 2000, and 18-to-one in 1990,” said Lawson, whose department workload is four courses per year.

“Our members teach students, not courses, so just counting up courses is not a fair representation of what a professor does. We’re not producing widgets — we’re educating students.”

Former Trent University president Bonnie Patterson, president of the Council of Ontario Universities, warned it’s simplistic to draw conclusions from the sheer number of professors and courses offered.

“Teaching does not only involve classroom time. Faculty members design programs and courses and prep for lectures, labs and seminars. They grade. They have office hours with students, mentor, supervise research, post lecture notes, advise other faculty, attend student events and formal university events and ceremonies.”

But no matter how many courses they teach, they should have mandatory professional development, according to the Ontario Undergraduate Students’ Alliance (OUSA), which surveyed some 9,000 students and found nearly 40 per cent chose teacher training as the area where they would steer extra funding.

“Look at public school teachers — they’ve just expanded their training from one to two years, and for most professions, there’s a massive amount of preparation required, so for professors who spend a decent chunk of their time teaching, surely it’s not too much to expect some training,” said McMaster biology graduate Spencer Graham, a member of OUSA’s steering committee.

“We’d like to see them trained in how to run the 21st-century classroom; how to make it inclusive and welcoming to students of all backgrounds, how to encourage participation, how to explain things clearly, how to facilitate group discussion — these are skills students expect from their professors and their teaching assistants, but they need training.”

Graham said OUSA also believes universities should place more priority on teaching, rather than research, and noted the average professor used to teach up to six courses a year in the 1980s, but the workload has dropped, he said, “because research has become paramount.

“Research is super important, but lower workloads have led to larger classes and higher student-faculty ratios,” said Graham, noting Ontario’s per-student grant is still the lowest in Canada.

“What students want is a better balance between teaching and research.”

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